Roales, a community with some 900 inhabitants (2018), is located on a pilgrimage route to Santiago del Compostela. From this town it is about a 350 km walk in a north-westerly direction to reach that destination.
Anyone who enters Roales from the south will soon pass the garden with sculptures as shown above.
Life and works
This garden is a creation of José Dominguez Carbajo (1936-2017), who was born in a commune not far from Roales. After primary school, he went to work for a company that built roads. He married and the couple went to live in Roales. They got a number of children and grandchildren, most of whom live in Roales.
Although Carbajo enjoyed drawing at a young age, artistic pursuits did not materialize until the age of 68, when he was retired. He had a vegetable garden near the southern entrance to Roales and he gradually started to fill it with sculptures.
Working with cement, which he painted with striking colours, he made a series of sculptures, some of which were life-size.
Starting at the entrance on the south side of the garden, one will see two eagles guarding the entrance on top of columns and then a life-size giraffes.
In addition to the giraffe, there are numerous other animal sculptures, such as a wolf, a deer and the growling three-headed dog Cerberus
Carbajo's art environment also has some striking sculptures, such as St. James galloping on a white horse in a flowing robe. .
Another striking sculpture in this site is the person with the backpack, which depicts a walker on the pilgrimage route leading toward Santiago de Compostela. .
Documentation
* Article (2014) by Jo Farb Hernandez on the website of SPACES, with a variety of images* Article June 2017) in Spanish newspaper La Opinion
* Articles (July 2026) on the weblog of Sophie Lepetit
José Dominguez Carbajo
El Recreo
83 C. Gral. Franco
Roales, dept Zamora, region Castilla y Léon, Spain
site can be seen from the road
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